The working (lower) class in Australia, mainly lived closer to the city, squashed together in the slums. Some examples are in Sydney – Pyrmont, Redfern and Surry Hills and in Melbourne – Collingwood, Richmond, Port Melbourne and Footscray. They lived at the bottom of hills where flooding enabled water borne diseases such as cholera and typhoid fever to breed spread throughout communities. Families of 10 were squeezed into inadequately sized, poorly insulated, iron houses where they struggled to pay rent and other necessities due to low wages, lack of government welfare, no minimum wage and housing costing much more that it was worth. Nearby factories which constantly expelled pollution also significantly impacted the living conditions of the working class as their lungs would be filled with toxic fumes from the factories where they already work excessively long hours. This resulted in dangerous, unsanitary and overcrowded living conditions . People lived so closely together that bacteria and disease could cause an epidemic within only a few days aided by the fact of that none of them could afford professional medicinal products and healthcare. This also influenced their working conditions as the majority if not all of the lower class worked in factories nearby as they did not have any special skills such as farming which could be cultivated in order to develop profit, the few that did, did not have enough money to cultivate their special skills into a store or business resulting in the predominance of the working class working in factories. This abundance of workers meant that employees neglected human rights and safety in the workplace as workers were dispensable, workers could not face to strike or rebel against their employers, no matter how unjustly they treated them because it was their only source of income that could be used to provide basic human needs and sustain their large family.
Housing in australia at the turn of the 20th century 